Operation Flapjack

Operation Flapjack (12 January 1970) was a military operation of the Vietnam War carried out by the MACV-SOG of the United States. A force of 300 MACV-SOG troops were sent to clear out the jungles around Da Nang, but they were unaware of the strong presence of Viet Cong troops and North Vietnamese Army troops in the area and they were eventually forced to retreat.

Background
In 1968, General Creighton Abrams took over command of the US Army forces stationed in Vietnam to replace the unsuccessful General William B. Westmoreland. Abrams was in command of American forces in an era of Vietnamization, where US troops were pulled out of the country slowly and replaced by South Vietnamese Army (SVA) troops. War raged on into 1970 after a year of search-and-destroy operations against the communist forces, and in January 1970, Abrams authorized a search-and-destroy mission near the city of Da Nang to destroy local communist forces. 300 US troops were sent to eliminate local communist troops, but the men stationed there were far superior in number. Mainly hardened Viet Cong, they were supported by North Vietnamese air force helicopters.

Operation
The Americans were inserted into the area via helicopter and ordered to take out the communists. Sadly for the US troops, they were inferior in number and they were ambushed by Vietnamese troops hiding in a creek and two deserted villages. The American soldiers were pounded by NVA helicopters that dropped napalm barrels and shot them with miniguns, and although the communists suffered 62 losses, 100 American troops were killed. The result was a communist victory, and the Americans were forced back.